ch too large, and I so much too small, to compass the feat
with anything approaching to ease.

I was greatly pleased with the dreary beauties of Bagshot Heath, and
Nurse Bundle (to whom the whole journey was familiar) enlivened this
part of our way by such anecdotes of Dick Turpin, the celebrated
highwayman, as she deemed suitable for my amusement. With what
interest I gazed at the little house by the roadside where Turpin was
wont to lodge, and where, arriving late one night, he demanded
beef-steak for supper in terms so peremptory that, there being none in
the house, the old woman who acted as his housekeeper was obliged to
walk, then and there, to the nearest town to procure it! This and
various other incidents of the robber's career I learned from Nurse
Bundle, who told me that traditions of his exploits and character
were still fresh in the neighbouring villages.

At Virginia Water we dined and changed horses. We stayed here longer
than was necessary, that I might see the lake and the ship; and Uncle
Ascott gave sixpence to an old man with a wooden leg who told us all
about it. And still I declined an inside place, and went back with
Nurse Bundle to the rumble. Early rising and the long drive began to
make me sleepy. The tame beauties of the valley of the Thames drew
little attention from my weary eyes; and I do not remember much about
the place where we next halted, except that the tea tasted of hay, and
that the bread and butter were good.

I gazed dreamily at Hounslow, despite fresh tales of Dick Turpin; and
all the successive "jogs" by which Nurse called my incapable attention
to the lamplighters, the shops, the bottles in the chemists' windows,
and Hyde Park, failed to rouse me to any intelligent appreciation of
the great city, now that I had reached it. After a long weary dream of
rattle and bustle, and dim lamps, and houses stretching upwards like
Jack's beanstalk through the chilly and foggy darkness, the carriage
stopped with one final jolt in a quiet and partially-lighted square;
and I was lifted down, and staggered into a house where the light was
as abundant and overpowering as it was feeble and inefficient without,
and, cramped in my limbs, and smothered with shawls, I could only beg
in my utter weariness to be put to bed.

Aunt Maria was always sensible, and generally kind.

"Bring him at once to his room, Mrs. Bundle," she said, "and get his
clothes off, and I will bring him some hot wine and wa